White House '3rd crasher' invited, lawyer says

WHITE HOUSE

A lawyer for the alleged "third crasher" says his client went to the White House state dinner after receiving an invitation in the mail and stayed for the dinner, contrary to official claims.

Scott Bolden, a veteran Washington defense attorney with the firm Reed Smith, did not provide details about how Carlos Allen came to attend, nor did he provide evidence of an invitation. The Secret Service is investigating because Allen was not on the official guest list.

Allen, 39, is publisher of a fledgling online society magazine whose party house has drawn complaints from his neighbors. He also once socialized with Tareq and Michaele Salahi, the original unexpected White House guests.

On Monday, six weeks after the Salahis caused an international scandal by crashing the state dinner honoring Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Secret Service divulged that a third person also made it in without credentials: a man whom sources later identified as Allen.

His appearance at the Nov. 24 event - arriving with the official Indian delegation that had been screened by the State Department, according to the agency - exposed a new area of weakness in White House security than that revealed by the Salahis, who walked in with authorized attendees through the main entrance.

Allen initially denied to reporters that he had attended the dinner or that he was the man being investigated. But Tuesday, his lawyer acknowledged that Allen had indeed gone to the White House and that he was cooperating with the federal investigation.

Bolden also said his client - unlike the Salahis, who merely mingled at the predinner reception - had stayed for the dinner. He would not offer details on what connections Allen had that might have helped him secure an invitation. "As far as he knew, he was invited and he was supposed to be there, and no one treated him any differently," Bolden said. "He clearly vehemently denies being a gate-crasher."

The White House has declined to comment on Allen, instead referring to the Secret Service statement describing him as an individual "not on the White House guest list," who, unlike other Indian delegation members, was not processed through the computer system.

The Indian Embassy continued to insist that it had nothing to do with helping Allen get into the White House and that he was not known to the embassy.

"We did not seek or facilitate any access for this person," spokesman Rahul Chhabra said.